Obtention and Study of Polyurethane-Based Active Packaging with Curcumin and/or Chitosan Additives for Fruits and Vegetables—Part I: Analysis of Morphological, Mechanical, Barrier, and Migration Properties

Abstract

Several polyurethane-formulated films with curcumin and/or chitosan additives for food packaging have been previously obtained. The study examines the effect of the additives on the film’s morphological, mechanical, barrier, and migration properties. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), water contact angle, thermogravimetric and differential thermal analysis (TGA and DTGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA), oxygen transmission rate (OTR), water vapor transmission rate (WVTR), and the overall and specific migration tests were conducted. The results show that the presence of chitosan significantly increased the overall migration and mechanical properties, such as the elongation at break, tensile strength, and Young’s modulus of most polyurethane formulations, while curcumin had a minor influence on the mechanical performance. Based on the results, formulations with curcumin but without chitosan are suitable for food packaging.

Mechanical and barrier properties of chitosan-based composite film as food packaging: A review

“…As evidenced by Table 1, chitosan film exhibits exceptional resistance to oxygen, comparable to commercially available polyvinylidene chloride film (Valenzuela et al 2015). The molecular weight and solvent of chitosan can influence the oxygen permeability of its film (Ruiz et al 2023).…”

Curcumin based polyurethane materials and their functional applications: a review

“…Since isocyanates in polyurethane raw materials are toxic, the safety of polyurethane packaging materials in terms of migration rate is more favorable for the application of polyurethane materials in food packaging. This was considered in a recent study by Ruiz et al [57], where the team used curcumin and chitosan as additives bonded in the network structure of polyurethane. Through testing, they found that although the molecular weight of curcumin was lower than that of chitosan, the physical interaction between curcumin and polyurethane exhibited better compatibility, leading to a reduction of overall migration.…”